Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Threats
Hi Brandon, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I grew up playing football, basketball, and I ran track. I ended up standing out more in track by being a High School All-American and multiple time State Champion, and from there competed on the Division I level at DePaul University.
Like many athletes across the country, due to battling injuries throughout my entire college career, I graduated never getting a chance to see my full potential. However, with the passion still there to become the best version of myself athletically, and with the help of a little divine intervention, I met a professional track coach through a simple Uber ride.
Within six months, I moved across state to embark on a dream to compete professionally in the sport of track and field, and with the hopes of competing at the 2020 Olympics trials.
Right away, my new coach explained to me the reason I kept getting injured was simply due to my lack of proper running technique. At that point I competed in track since the age of seven, and there I was twenty-two years old and never heard of this philosophy about running technique before.
Almost feeling like having to learn how to walk again, I push myself for years trying to perfect the proper running technique. As my speed started to increase drastically, and with the Olympic Standard now in sight, I moved back to Dallas in January of 2020 to compete in meets, not knowing within three months my life’s trajectory would be changing due to one word – Covid.
As everybody was during this time, I wasn’t quite sure of the direction I wanted to take, when all of sudden my father reached out to me about an NFL trainer that he met in an Uber ride that was looking for a speed coach. Big shout out to Uber! lol
I connected with the NFL trainer, and he started to bring me around athletes of all ages including professionals to help them increase their speed. Having fun with this, I was now at a cross road of whether I wanted to keep training to reach the Olympics trials, or to start my journey coaching athletes on speed development.
Because of my desire to help athletes, I chose the latter and immediately started my own business “‘Meraki Speed” teaching speed development across the country and globally as well. Since I have started coaching, I have helped train Olympians, NFL athletes, WNBA athletes, NCAA champions, High School All-Americans, State Champions and more.
I sit back and often think on how initially I chased after the dream to become a professional athlete, not knowing that process was shaping me to coach them instead.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Trying to run track professionally as an unsigned athlete out of college is very difficult to do. Unlike sponsored athletes, you have to work full time to support yourself and pay coaching fees, while also having to fund your travel, living, and registration expenses for the track meets.
Since track and field is not much of a spectator sport in the U.S., most professional meets are held internationally, with the prize money sometimes being only enough to cover your expenses if you’ve earned it.
You really have to love the sport and your will to succeed has to be monumental if you want to reach that goal.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a biomechanics specialist, who specializes in correcting sprinting mechanics.
For the longest, a lot of us have been led
to believe that in order to increase your speed, repeat runs and the weight room is all that one needs to get faster. This is a huge misconception and far from the truth.
The idea that an athlete can run around the track, field, or court with improper mechanics and still reach their maximum potential, would be the same idea as basketball player becoming a great shooter without proper shooting form, or a golfer being able to hit the ball with power and accuracy without having the proper swing. Proper technique in any sport or skill is usually what separates the good from the elite.
I was that athlete that did not reach their potential due to improper sprinting technique, so I have made it my mission to help athletes gain that wisdom and understanding, so that they will not have to go through the same thing.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
At one point I thought it was just good luck that two life altering decisions of mine came from meeting someone in a random Uber ride, but I have later learned that we create our own luck, and that we create our own destiny through our thoughts and belief systems. The universe is simply an echo, sharing back with you what you are thinking, feeling, and speaking on a day to day basis.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.merakispeed.com
- Instagram: @meraki.speed
Image Credits
@kai_visuals
@eli.snapped
